Washington (AP) – The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, created another signal messaging cat which included his wife and brother where he shared similar details on a March military air strike against the Houthi militants of Yemen who were Sent in another channel With the best leaders of the Trump administration, the New York Times reported.
A person familiar with the content and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, confirmed the second cat with the Associated Press.
The second cat on the signal – which is a Commercially available application Unauthorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified information on national defense – included 13 people, said the person. They also confirmed that the cat had been nicknamed “Defense” Team Huddle “.
The New York Times reported that the group included the wife of Hegseth, Jennifer, who is a former producer of Fox News, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at Pentagon As Department of Internal Security Liaison and Senior Advisor. The two traveled with the defense secretary and attended high -level meetings.
Sunday, the White House rejected the report on Sunday as a “non-history”, suggesting that the former unhappy employees of the Pentagon spread false complaints.
“Regardless of the number of times the inherited media try to resuscitate the same non-history, they cannot change the fact that no classified information has been shared,” said Anna Kelly, assistant press secretary. “The recently drawn” leaks “continue to distort the truth to appease their broken Egos and undermine the president’s agenda, but the administration will continue to keep them responsible.”
The revelation of the additional discussion group caused new criticisms against Hegseth and the broader administration of President Donald Trump after Action failure So far, against the best national security officials who have discussed the plans of the military strike in Signal.
“The details continue to get out. We continue to learn how Pete Hegseth has put lives in danger. But Trump is still too weak to dismiss him,” said the Democrat chief of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, “Pete Hegseth must be dismissed.”
The first cat, created by the national security advisor Mike Waltz, included a number of members of the cabinet and came to light Because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor -in -chief of the Atlantic, was added to the group.
The content of this cat, which the Atlantic has published, shows that Hegseth has listed arms systems and a chronology for the attack on Iran Houthis in Yemen last month.
The National Security Council and a Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to messages requesting comments on the additional discussion group.
Hegseth previously argued that no classified information or war plans had been shared in the cat with the journalist.
The Times reported on Sunday that the second cat had the same hours of launching the war plane as the first cat included. Several former and current have declared that the sharing of these operational details before a strike was certainly classified and that their release could have put pilots in danger.
The use of the signal by Hegseth and the sharing of these plans are under Investigation by the interim inspector general of the Ministry of Defense. He intervened at the request of the management of the senatorial committee of armed services – Republican president Roger Wicker of Mississippi and the Democratic Member of ranking Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Reed urged the IG on Sunday evening to also probe the second reported cat, saying that HegSeth “must immediately explain why he would have sent classified information that could endanger the life of American services”.
“I have serious concerns about the capacity of the Hegseth secretary to maintain the confidence of the American soldiers and the commander-in-chief,” he added.
The new revelations are involved as part of new Pentagon disorders. Four officials of the Hegseth’s inner circle left last week while the Pentagon conducts a general survey for information leaks.
Dan CaldwellHegseth aid; Colin Carroll, chief of staff of the Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg; and Darin Selnick, the assistant chief of staff of Hegseth, were escorted from the Pentagon.
While the three had initially been put on leave while waiting for the investigation, a Common declaration shared by Caldwell On X on Saturday said that the three “had still not been informed of what we were the subject of an investigation, if there was always an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation into” leaks “to start.”
Caldwell was the staff member appointed as the HegSeth point person in the Signal cat With members of Trump’s office.
Former Pentagon spokesperson John Ulyot also announced that he is resigning last week, unrelated to leaks. The Pentagon said, however, that Ulyot had been invited to resign.
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The writer AP Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
